"A human being is a part of the whole, called by us the “universe,” a part limited in time and space. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security."

~ Albert Einstein, (1879-1955), New York Post, 11/28/1972

Sometimes I wonder if Kaku is like Drew Barrymore's character in 50 First Dates. This morning she stared at me like she didn't know me, and then after I fed her and she started eating, I petted her gently. She looked up at me in wonder, continued eating, and then looked up again, and ate. It was so endearing.

Later, as I grabbed my phone from the bedside table, she saw me and darted under the bed. Perhaps so. :) But the good thing is, she seems to be coming around a little bit, day after day, seemingly curious about this pale tree-like creature who feeds and pets her daily.

Before I caught the movie, I couldn't imagine why Jet Li took on this role. I mean, it was totally demeaning to himself and his own culture. But after, I totally understand why he did.

First of all, this is a French production. The French do spiffy movies. Weird (think: City of the Lost Children), but unique, and in that context, a story like Danny the Dog isn't too unusual. (I've watch enough French films to know.)

Secondly, Luc Besson wrote the script and produced it. Yuen Wo Ping was the action director. It doesn't get better than this. Plus, the story called for acting, and it proved to Hollywood that Jet Li can act, unlike all the other action-only flicks that he had done, no matter how cool. And it takes him straight to the lap of the European market.

Okay, now the review.

It was brutal watching a large chunk of the movie. For us who have grown up with Jet Li as our hero, it was painful to see him being treated like a dog, literally by his owner, played perfectly by Bob Hoskins, and his cronies. Justice is sweet at the end, that is promised by the rather predictable script. But that is exactly what the French excel at, taking a simple story and creating art out of it.

The fighting is brutal and gritty. The ferocity of his blows simply could not have been choreographed. Hence, kudos to Yuen for a superb job. Think Fight Club with no holds barred. He's made savagery into an art.

The transition from trained killer to feeling human was executed with kid's gloves. Morgan Freeman fit the role perfectly as stoic mentor who introduced Danny into the real world. Guided by his step-daughter, Danny learns what family means and finds out the truth about his mother.

A well put-together story, great acting, excellent fighting (especially in the beginning and in the pit). A must-watch for everyone, except kids under 10. Don't believe the PG crap.

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."
~ Aldous Huxley

(Source: Nanovirus)

Today after lunch as I was buying chicken rice back for the work mates, Dad and I got filmed by some huge camera with ChannelNewsAsia on the side. It caught us twice. Once while we were walking into the food court, and the second, as we walked toward the exit. I wonder what the programme is, but I asked Dad to check out the channel for fun. :D

An interesting sight this morning while feeding the kids. 4 cockroach legs in one of the bowls. I wonder who had left a gift for whom. :D

Sam got stuck on the roof this evening, howling like crazy. I thought they were playing but when I went to check, there he was, sitting up there looking plaintively at me. I climbed up and grabbed him. He yelped a little in fear but very quickly I caught him and put him down on the table. He seemed a little grateful. All the other cats came into the kitchen in time to see him being rescued.

Later, Tux leapt beside me while I read to say hi. He seems to like the area where my pillow usually is. I petted him some and then Boy began howling a little. I picked him up and he sat on my lap. For the first time ever, while sitting on my lap, he began aggressively licking his right forearm and even bit it a little. I think it must have been itchy.

Sam came by to have a look and Boy got ansy. His leg kicked some, and that was the signal for me to let him go. :)

I am putting this to rest once and for all. If you are pregnant, keep your cat. Have your partner or yourself clean the poo pan daily. That's all.

FACT #1: Toxoplasmosis is more likely to be caught by outdoor cats, and if you have had your cat for a long time you're probably immune.

FACT #2: You can only catch it (assuming you're already not immune) through eating cat poo.

FACT #3: Toxoplasmosis can only be incubated in a cat's poo over 3 days so if you clean the poo pan daily, the bug won't hatch.

FACT #4: You'd sooner catch Toxoplasmosis through eating raw or uncooked food than from your cat's poo.

Facts on Cats and Pregnancy
(Source: persiancats.org)

"Doctors used to say the woman should get rid of the cat, but that's totally unnecessary," says Dr. Michael Davidson, associate professor of companion animal and special species medicine at North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine. The only way a woman can get toxoplasmosis from a cat is through direct contact with its feces, which most people try to avoid anyway! A few simple precautions are all that's needed to prevent exposure to this parasite during pregnancy.

Some 80 percent of domestic cats are exposed to toxoplasmosis during their lives, usually as a result of eating a mouse, mole, squirrel or other infected prey. Some cats show no symptoms; others get diarrhea or become listless. Occasionally, pneumonia or eye inflammation occurs. Indoor cats in rodent-free homes may never be exposed.

As many as 60 percent of humans also become exposed, usually after handling cat feces either in a litter box or garden, says Dr. Davidson. Chances are, most cat owners who have lived with felines for any length of time have already been exposed to toxoplasmosis. Like cats, people generally show no symptoms or appear to have only a mild "flu." Although a person shows no symptoms, he or she still produces an antibody, thus building up immunity.

"If you have been exposed to toxoplasmosis and produced an antibody, you're pretty well protected," says Dr. John Botti, director of maternal-fetal medicine at Penn State University College of Medicine. If a woman is exposed to the parasite for the first time during pregnancy, though, the effects that it will have on her and the baby depend on how far along she is in the pregnancy. During the first three months, it is unlikely that a woman will pass the parasite on to her developing fetus. If toxoplasmosis is transmitted to the baby during this time, however, the chances are greatest that the baby will develop a major health problem. Conversely, a woman in her third trimester of pregnancy is most likely to pass on toxoplasmosis to her baby, but the parasite is least likely to cause serious birth defects.

To eliminate the risk of exposure to toxoplasmosis, pregnant cat owners should avoid handling the litter box by having someone else perform the task, or simply wear gloves when cleaning it, and washing hands thoroughly afterwards. This also applies to gardening, especially if outdoor cats frequent the area. "Just use common sense," Dr. Davidson advises. As an added precaution, he recommends that the litter box be changed daily because, once the organism is shed, it takes at least 24 hours for it to become transmissible to humans. Interestingly, cats can only shed the organism in their feces one time during their lives - just after they have been exposed for the first time. And, Dr. Davidson says, "It's unlikely they'll shed it during a woman's pregnancy."

A simple blood test can determine if a person has ever been exposed to toxoplasmosis. Unfortunately, it cannot specify when exposure occurred, so it's a good idea for a woman to be tested before becoming pregnant. If she has been exposed she will know for sure it was prior to her pregnancy.

Toxoplasmosis should be taken seriously, but it's no reason for pregnant women to get rid or even avoid their cats. During pregnancy, a woman has days when she feels apprehensive about the future or stressed about her weight gain or fearful of the impending delivery. The perfect remedy - and one that is completely safe - may be to curl up on the sofa with a feline friend.

How to catch Toxoplasmosis
(Source: Toxoplasmosis (and how to catch it))

The toxoplasmosis scare with regard to cats has limited foundation. Even if you do change cat litter, it would be extremely hard for you to catch toxoplasmosis from it - not impossible, but hard. You are much more likely to catch toxoplasmosis from eating rare or lightly cooked meat, and poor food hygiene generally.

Toxoplasmosis is caused by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii. It is only a danger to the unborn child if the mother contracts it during pregnancy for the first time. The infection can only cross the placenta in the acute phase of the illness, i.e. in the mother's first attack. After this the mother is usually immune, but even if she does have another dose, it will not harm the baby.

So assuming you are not immune to toxoplasmosis, how do you go about catching it? Here's what you'd have to do with cats:

First, find a cat which is allowed outdoors and which hunts - as they usually catch toxoplasmosis from eating rodent prey. Housebound cats will not be able to catch it. In cats generally, about 20-60% have been infected [1]. The prevalence is highest in feral cats although domestic cats can catch it too. However, very few of these cats will actually be infectious themselves, as usually they will only transmit the disease during their primary infection. After the cat is first infected, it will shed oocysts (eggs) in its faeces for 10-14 days. It will not normally shed them after this period, and only around 1% of infected cats have been found to be infectious in surveys [1]. However, the oocysts can survive for a year or more, so old cat faeces are potentially dangerous - e.g. ones that have been mouldering in your garden and which you stumble upon while weeding the borders.

So, having found your cat during its rare infectious period, you then have to actually ingest some of these oocysts to get infected. We are not talking about changing cat litter with basic hygiene precautions here. You actually have to ingest cat faeces somehow. If you are washing your hands after changing cat litter then this will be very unlikely. However, wearing gloves while gardening, and not touching your face or mouth while gardening, is probably a sensible precaution.

Just looking at the numbers here, if around 1% (and this is probably a high estimate) of cats are shedding oocysts at any particular time, and around 30% of women are immune anyway, then only around 0.6% of women who come into contact with one cat are at even a *theoretical* risk of catching toxoplasmosis from their cat while pregnant. And this would be assuming that they actually went out of their way to try to catch it, i.e. deliberately ate cat faeces! Bringing in basic hygiene precautions will mean that the proportion of that 0.6% of women who stand any realistic chance of being infected is miniscule.

Without being complacent about toxoplasmosis as it is a dreadful disease for a baby to catch in utero, it appears ridiculous that many pregnant women are paranoid about going near cats, when they should be concentrating their attentions on food hygiene and caution while gardening.

If you do catch toxoplasmosis in pregnancy, estimates of the likely percentage of babies affected vary, as do estimates of the likely severity of the illness. For example: "there is approximately a 40% chance that the foetus will acquire the infection, and in around 10% of these cases, severe neurological or ocular disease is present at birth" [1] or "The transmission rate from a maternal infection is about 45%. Of these 60% are sub-clinical infections, 9% result in death of the foetus and 30% have severe damage such as hydrocephalus, intracerebral calcification, retinochoroiditis and mental retardation." [3]

Other links:

Handling cats during pregnancy: is it a concern?
Raining cats and dogs – pets, pregnancy and your baby
Toxoplasmosis, Human Pregnancy, Infants and Cats
Cats and Pregnancy
Google search for Cats + Pregnancy
Google search for How to catch Toxoplasmosis

Tags: Toxoplasmosis, pregnancy and cats

Adult human liver cells have been made to produce insulin and transplanted into mice to treat diabetes.

Researcher Sarah Ferber of the Sheba Medical Center in Tel-Hashomer, Israel and colleagues say that their work could lead to treatments that allow diabetics to donate their own insulin-producing tissue.

Such treatments could overcome problems with current cell replacement therapies for diabetes, which are hindered by limited availability of donor tissue and the need for immune suppression.

(Source: Betterhumans and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

According to a new study, animal studies are poor predictors of birth defect risks, being accurate on average just slightly more than half the time.

Instead, test tube tests on embryonic stem cells are more effective at detecting toxicity than animal tests, says the study's principal author, Jarrod Bailey of the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne.

"It is time to admit that animal-based testing is an abject failure," he says. "An estimated 50,000 to 70,000 new chemicals and up to 400 new drugs are introduced to the market every year. Every year we delay, every year we continue to rely on animal testing, brings us that much closer to another tragedy like thalidomide."

(Source: Betterhumans)